Pipe expansion is done with swages that have a variety of designs. The swage can be a cone of a fixed dimension that is pushed through a pipe to place the pipe in tension or it can be pulled through the pipe to place the pipe in compression during the expansion. When using a fixed swage driven uphole one way is to provide a bell with the fixed swage below the tubular to be expanded and overlap the tubular to be expanded with another already in the well. A ball is dropped to close off a compartment below the swage that can be pressured up to drive the swage uphole. This technique is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,582. These designs are complex to build and run into a wellbore and have a possible downside of getting the swage stuck while driven uphole with no simple way to remove the assembly.
Other swage devices use radially extendable rollers that are hydraulically powered coupled with rotation of the swage and a pull or push through the tubular being expanded. These devices can be bulky making them difficult to use in the smaller sizes and develop enough power to build in place by roller extension driven by applied hydraulic pressure. One such example is U.S. Pat. No. 7,124,826.
Another adjustable swage design involves interlocking segments that translate axially with respect to each other. When the segments are pushed into alignment they are at their maximum or built diameter and can be advanced through a tubular. If the segmented swage runs into an obstruction the segments can move axially relatively to each other to assume a smaller dimension to get past an obstruction where for reasons of wellbore conditions the pipe will not give enough to let the swage pass in the fully built diameter configuration. The original design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,114,559 and related patents. To make this design more compliant to obstructions on one portion of the tubular but not all the way around it, the edge connections were modified to a more of a ball and socket design from the original L-shaped interlocking design to make the assembly more compliant. This modified design is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,128,146.
The present invention is an improvement to the known segmented swage design shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,114,559 and 7,128,146. In one aspect it reconfigures the segments as they are joined for relative edge movement by inclining the sliding axis such that once the segments are built to maximum dimension they will not collapse or act in a compliant manner so as to reduce the created drift diameter in applications that require a minimum drift to pass other tools at a later time. The edge to edge connection is configured to minimize relative rotation between adjacent segments at their sliding interface to reduce the potential for binding during relative motion on diameter change. The orientation of the load transfer surface between segments is also configured to transfer more of the reaction force in building the swage to its target diameter in a tubular to a more radial direction to reduce the normal component of force on surfaces that slide relatively so as to reduce the friction force from such sliding to make it possible to get to the built configuration with less force applied. These and other aspects of the present invention will be more apparent to those skilled in the art from a review of the detailed description of the preferred embodiment and the associated drawings with the understanding that the full scope of the invention is determined by the attached claims.